Tips for building a native iOS app for your startup

Every now and then people ask me for any tips on building an iOS native app for their business. Most of them already have their business presence either through a web or an android client.

I always suggest to keep these two things in mind.

Thinnest slice of a working app

Relentlessly cut scope of the first version for your iOS mobile app. Decide on the minimum set of core features that are super critical for your app. You can always add more features in a later release. Release the thinnest slice, see what works and what doesn’t. Learn and keep iterating on the good parts.

Design - Stick to iOS native controls/paradigms

If you’re the business owner, read iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Ask your designer to read this if he hasn’t already. Try to stick to these guidelines for your app design. STICK to these guidelines. You can thank me later once your app hits the store.
This has two advantages.

Faster development
Building app with native UI paradigms and controls is the quickest way. Not only the development work of custom UI design takes more time, it’s also more prone to workload estimation errors and will result in frequent missing deadlines. This is especially true if your iOS developer is not proficient enough.

Avoid making shitty design
You can dramatically increase your chances of not screwing up the iOS app by sticking to these iOS paradigms. It is always safe and wise to rely upon the apple’s guidelines than coming up with your own designs. Users are already familiar with this design and therefore, you’ll be investing minimum effort to educate your users.